Past Meets Present
by flowerkiss42
Summary: Alica s been gone off and on for the past two years. When she gets back, she finds her brother is still the same and all of her old friends were stuck up. Feeling a little like an outsider, she quickly grabs hold of an unlikely friendship. She soon finds that what she s been told isn t so black and white. Her loyalty is soon tested, tearing her in two. Where will the pieces fall?


Two days. That's about as long as I've been back. And in that whole time, I've only seen my brother a total of about five minutes. That's about as long as he's been home, other than late, late at night.

The only way I was able to get a single idea on where he was, was by asking his girlfriend, Marcia. And yet still all she could tell me was nothing I didn't already know; Randy was cruising around the East Side with Bob. I swear, those two were practically conjoined at the hip.

I've been driving all over the East Side and for some reason I haven't been able to find them. You'd think that finding a car full of drunken fools would be easier than this.

It was just about two in the morning and I was just about to call it quits when I saw it. Bob's blue mustang was parked casually on the side of the road next to the park. 'What could they possibly be doing in a park at two in the morning? ` I thought to myself. The only thing that came to mind was that they must have came out here earlier, for who knows what, and passed out.

I slid my car in next to Bob`s and put it in park. I hopped out and began to look around. The park was a little run down, but that was expected on the East Side. It also wasn't very big, and I spotted them immediately.

From the looks of it, there were several of them crowded around the fountain and possibly another one laying on the ground not too far away. I heard water splashing, and my eyes widened as I put all the pieces together.

I jogged over toward them as quickly as I could. "What the hell are you guys doing?!" I shouted.

A couple of them turned to look at me. My brother smiled and took a step towards me. "Oh, hi Alica. What are you doing here?" As I got closer the stench of alcohol got strong.

I ignored my brother and blew past him. When I reached the center, as I expected, Bob stood holding another kid`s head underwater while the kid fought furiously to resist him.

"Stop it!" I wailed as I pulled with all my might on Bob`s arm.

He glanced at me for a second and grinned. "Don't worry, I`m just taking out the trash." This was just Soc code for roughing up a greaser.

This made me furious, so I yanked harder and began kicking him in the shins.

He let up for a minute to look at me again. "What`s the matter? He`s just a greaser."

In that instant, I slapped him clear across the face. For a few moments he remained stunned, letting go of the greaser all together while the red on his cheek began to burn. One of my brother`s friends grabbed hold of the greaser with the help of another.

Bob`s eyes narrowed into a glare. "You…" He began to move towards me, but Randy got to him and held him back.

I looked to my brother. "I came to bring you home. I figured I`d find you drunk. I guess things haven't changed much." I looked around at his friends. "You should all go home and sober out."

One of them scoffed. "We don't have to listen to you. Just go home."

I cracked a half smile. "If you don't leave now and go home, I`ll make sure the cops come by to help you find your way."

They all singed me with a glare. I could tell in some of their eyes that they wanted to hit me, but they wouldn`t hit a girl, especially because I was Randy`s sister.

"Come on, let`s go," Randy said agitatedly. They all hesitated, but then started going towards the car. The two that were holding the greaser threw him to the ground. Bob came over and spit on him, and then followed the others.

I came over and crouched down next to the boy. "You all right? You got roughed up pretty bad, didn't you?" He looked up at me a little confused. I just cracked a smile and helped him to his feet.

"Come on, Alica. Leave that scum there."

Without even looking over at Randy, I said, "Just go wait in my car. I`ll be there in a minute." Agitation was leaking through my veins. It took a few moments, but I soon heard Randy walk off towards my car.

I quickly shook off my aggravation and turned to the boy. "Sorry about that. As you might have just heard, my names Alica. What`s yours?"

He hesitated for a second and then said, "Ponyboy." He looked at me like he wanted to say something else, but didn`t.

Right then Ponyboy acted as if an idea just hit him. He began scanning the park. His eyes settled on the person slummed over on the ground. I`d completely forgot about him. When I first got here, I had assumed that it was one of my brother`s friends that had passed out.

Ponyboy jogged over to him, and I followed.

Ponyboy dropped to his knees and began shaking him saying, "Johnny. Johnnycakes, wake up."

The boy on the ground made a noise and slowly raised his head to gaze up at Ponyboy. On his cheek was a big bruise. "You ok, Ponyboy? My head`s killing me."

Ponyboy gave him a smile. "You don't look so hot either. Can you stand?" Johnny gently nodded and began to raise to his feet.

Once we were all at the same level, he finally noticed me. In a quiet voice, he asked,"Whose she?"

"This is Alica. She`s a Soc. She came over and told all the Socs to book it, and they lit on out of here."

"Yeah, one of those idiots is my brother. Randy always does the stupidest things when Bob`s around." I looked between them both. Ponyboy stood there listening, and yet still a little detached; probably because I was considered a Soc. Johnny just looked skittish.

I opened my mouth again, "You two might want to peel out. I got them to leave for now, but I doubt they went home. There`s no telling how long they`ll actually stay gone. If you want, I can take you home."

I could see on their faces that they didn't seem very comfortable with the offer.

"That`s ok. We`ll just walk," Ponyboy answered, speaking for the both of them.

"Are you sure? It`s really no trouble, and besides you never know if those guys will come back,' I ventured again. Through Johnny`s eyes I could see his insides jump when I said that.

"I think we`ll take our chances. Besides your brother would freak if he saw us hop in the back seat."

I smirked. "I don't care what he thinks, and he`s not the boss of me."

Ponyboy was tired of negotiating, so he said, "Ok, I guess we`ll come. Let`s go Johnny." A little bit of Johnny`s nerves seemed to fall off right then.

I led them across the park to my car. It was an Impala. In the passenger seat, Randy had nodded off. Ponyboy and Johnny quietly slid over the sides into the back seat. As soon as I got into the car, we were off. The whole car ride was silent.


End file.
